''Pomacea paludosa'',

common name In biology, a common name of a taxon or organism (also known as a vernacular name, English name, colloquial name, country name, popular name, or farmer's name) is a name that is based on the normal language of everyday life; and is often contrast ...

the Florida applesnail, is a species of

freshwater snail Freshwater snails are gastropod mollusks which live in fresh water. There are many different families. They are found throughout the world in various habitats, ranging from ephemeral pools to the largest lakes, and from small seeps and springs ...

with an operculum, an aquatic

gastropod The gastropods (), commonly known as snails and slugs, belong to a large taxonomic class of invertebrates within the phylum Mollusca called Gastropoda (). This class comprises snails and slugs from saltwater, from freshwater, and from land. T ...

mollusk Mollusca is the second-largest phylum of invertebrate animals after the Arthropoda, the members of which are known as molluscs or mollusks (). Around 85,000 extant species of molluscs are recognized. The number of fossil species is e ...

in the family

Ampullariidae Ampullariidae, commonly known as the apple snails, is a family of large freshwater snails, aquatic gastropod mollusks with a gill and an operculum. These snails simultaneously have a gill and a lung as functional respiratory structures, wh ...

, the

apple snail Ampullariidae, commonly known as the apple snails, is a family of large freshwater snails, aquatic gastropod mollusks with a gill and an operculum. These snails simultaneously have a gill and a lung as functional respiratory structures, which ...

Shell description

This species is the largest freshwater gastropod native to North America.Burch, J. B. 1982. ''North American freshwater snails''.

Walkerana ''Walkerana'' is a genus of frogs in the family Ranixalidae. The genus is endemic to the Western Ghats in the states of Kerala and Tamil Nadu, India. It was erected in 2016 to host three species of ''Indirana'' that represented a genetically a ...

1(4):217-365. The

shell Shell may refer to: Architecture and design * Shell (structure), a thin structure ** Concrete shell, a thin shell of concrete, usually with no interior columns or exterior buttresses ** Thin-shell structure Science Biology * Seashell, a hard ou ...

is globose in shape. The

whorls A whorl ( or ) is an individual circle, oval, volution or equivalent in a whorled pattern, which consists of a spiral or multiple concentric objects (including circles, ovals and arcs). Whorls in nature File:Photograph and axial plane floral ...

are wide, the

spire A spire is a tall, slender, pointed structure on top of a roof of a building or tower, especially at the summit of church steeples. A spire may have a square, circular, or polygonal plan, with a roughly conical or pyramidal shape. Spires are ...

is depressed, and the

aperture In optics, an aperture is a hole or an opening through which light travels. More specifically, the aperture and focal length of an optical system determine the cone angle of a bundle of rays that come to a focus in the image plane. An opt ...

is narrowly oval. The shells are brown in color, and have a pattern of stripes. The shell is 60 mm in both length and width.

Distribution

The indigenous distribution of this snail is central and southern

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

,Thompson, F.G. 1984.
The freshwater snails of Florida: a manual for identification.
' University of Florida Press, Gainesville, Florida, 94 pp.

Cuba Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...

and

Hispaniola Hispaniola (, also ; es, La Española; Latin and french: Hispaniola; ht, Ispayola; tnq, Ayiti or Quisqueya) is an island in the Caribbean that is part of the Greater Antilles. Hispaniola is the most populous island in the West Indies, and th ...

.Dundee, D. S. 1974. ''Catalog of introduced molluscs of eastern North America (north of Mexico)''. Sterkiana 55:1-37. The nonindigenous distribution includes northern Florida. The species has also been found in

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

Oahu Oahu () (Hawaiian language, Hawaiian: ''Oʻahu'' ()), also known as "The Gathering place#Island of Oʻahu as The Gathering Place, Gathering Place", is the third-largest of the Hawaiian Islands. It is home to roughly one million people—over t ...

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only stat ...

(Devick 1991),

Louisiana Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is borde ...

, and

Oklahoma Oklahoma (; Choctaw language, Choctaw: ; chr, ᎣᎧᎳᎰᎹ, ''Okalahoma'' ) is a U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States, bordered by Texas on the south and west, Kansas on the nor ...

Ecology

This is a tropical species. It is

amphibious Amphibious means able to use either land or water. In particular it may refer to: Animals * Amphibian, a vertebrate animal of the class Amphibia (many of which live on land and breed in water) * Amphibious caterpillar * Amphibious fish, a fish ...

, and can survive in water bodies that dry out during the dry season. Applesnails have both gills and lungs.

References

* Applesnails of Florida Pomacea spp. (Gastropoda: Ampullariidae) This article incorporates public domain text from: * A. Benson. 2008. ''Pomacea paludosa''.

USGS The United States Geological Survey (USGS), formerly simply known as the Geological Survey, is a scientific agency of the United States government. The scientists of the USGS study the landscape of the United States, its natural resources, a ...

Nonindigenous Aquatic Species Database, Gainesville, FL. Revision Date: 4/24/2006

* McClary, A. 1962. ''Surface inspiration and ciliary feeding in Pomacea paludosa (Prosobranchia: Mesogastropoda: Ampullariidae)''. Malacologia, 2(1): 87-104. * Philip C. Darby, Robert E. Bennetts, Jason D. Croop, Patricia L. Valentine-Darby and Wiley M. Kitchens
A Comparison of Sampling Techniques for Quantifying Abundance of the Florida Apple Snail (Pomacea Paludosa Say)
'. J. Moll. Stud. (1999), 65, 195-208. * Philip C. Darby, Patricia L. Valentine-Darby, H. Franklin Percival & Wiley M. Kitchens
Collecting Florida applesnails (Pomacea paludosa) from wetland habitats using funnel traps
Wetlands. Volume 21, Issue 2 (June 2001): 308–311. * Robert B.E. Shuford III, Paul V. McCormick & Jennifer Magson.
Habitat related growth of juvenile Florida applesnails (Pomacea paludosa)
'. Florida Scientist. Volume 68, Issue 1 (March 2005): 11–19. * Bruce Sharfstein & Alan D. Steinman.
Growth and survival of the Florida apple snail (Pomacea paludosa) fed 3 naturally occurring macrophyte assemblages
'. Journal of the North American Benthological Society, Volume 20, Issue 1 (March 2001): 84–95. * Posch H., Garr A. L. & Reynolds E. (2013). "The presence of an exotic snail, ''Pomacea maculata'', inhibits growth of juvenile Florida apple snails, ''Pomacea paludosa''". ''

Journal of Molluscan Studies The ''Journal of Molluscan Studies'' is the peer-reviewed scientific journal of the Malacological Society of London, covering research in malacology.

'' 79(4): 383-385. .
Applesnails of Florida
on the UF / IFAS Featured Creatures Web site
The applesnails of Florida

* https://web.archive.org/web/20060923125401/http://nis.gsmfc.org/nis_factsheet.php?toc_id=155 * http://www.applesnail.net/content/species/pomacea_paludosa.htm {{Taxonbar, from=Q3142468 paludosa Gastropods described in 1829

Shell description

Distribution

Ecology

References

Further reading